The smartphones that we use on a daily basis have multiple radios inside them to provide services that we need, such as Wi-Fi and LTE. Many might not be aware that some of these handsets have a radio that’s deactivated by the handset manufacturer mostly for business and cost reasons. It’s the FM radio chip that’s used for local news, music as well as emergency information. In a major shift from tradition AT&T has promised to “light up” the FM radio chip inside all Android smartphones that it sells starting next year.
AT&T is going to make FM radio a mandatory specification for Android phones that it sells, this means that manufacturers will have to activate the FM radio chips if they want their handsets to be sold on AT&T which happens to be the country’s second largest mobile carrier.
The National Association of Broadcasters is delighted about this decision, it says in a statement that this marks “a new beginning in mobile technology.” It points out that having active FM reception on these smartphones will allow for features like song tagging which will appeal to a younger demographic.
While activation timing is expected for all new Android smartphones that are released in 2016 there’s hope that some phones will be ready with it by the end of this year.